Astus wrote:In order to be able to accept buddha-lands, buddhas, deities and rebirth, one has to switch from objectivist-materialist to a subjectivist-phenomenologist view where appearances are experiential data. Then see how mental phenomena are definitive regarding all experience. Then it makes perfect sense that one can be born in the Pure Land just as one is born here because of karma.

Never really bought into this argument. People see all kinds of things, that doesn't make them real or true. DMT is naturally produced in the brain that gives rise to hallucinations and that's what happens a lot in deep meditation.

I would like to know different interpretations to Pure Lands in Zen Buddhism. For me, the literal interpretation of Pure Land is like a stumbling block to continue in Mahayana Buddhism. I don't know the different interpretations about the Pure Land, so, I'm open minded about them.

I once heard Rōshi Jiyu-Kennett say in a talk, that she described Zen and Pure Land practice as working towards the same goal, yet from opposite ends of the same tunnel.

The Zen through more introspection and contemplation, and the Pure Land groups through faith.

And that the more advanced people in each got, the more Zen people developed faith, and the more Pure Land people developed introspection.

I've seen this to be true at least in the case of Zen.

In Gasshō,Sara

"Life is full of suffering. AND Life is full of the EternalIT IS OUR CHOICEWe can stand in our shadow, and wallow in the darkness, ORWe can turn around.It is OUR choice." -Rev. Basil Singer

" ...out of fear, even the good harm one another. " -Rev. Dazui MacPhillamy

I don't really believe the Pure Land is some physically different world than this, it is just a different mind existing in this world, having entirely different perspectives and experiences. Maybe the mind in an enlightened human being, or a bit of magic pixie dust that was conjured up by a Lotus Flower.

If I imagine the Pure Land as an alternative location, I can't really see myself in the Pure Land...I mean, if it is just another place, how does that change the mind?